Trevor Grant, veteran Australian friend of Eezham Tamils, passes away at 65

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 March 2017, 23:15 GMT]
Australian journalist and an advocate for Tamils rights, Trevor Grant, who has also written widely on SL State’s genocide against Eezham Tamils and on the complicity of the Western governments in the genocide, has passed away on Monday at the age of 65 after a courageous battle with cancer for 18 months. “As a sports journalist for 40 years, he took the mission of speaking truth to power more to heart than any of his kind,” wrote Greg Baum, the chief sports columnist and associate editor of The Age paying tribute to him in a memorial piece in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. In 2014, he authored a book titled Sri Lanka's Secrets – How the Rajapaksa regime gets away with Murder.
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Wickramasinghe protects unpunished war criminals of SL Military Intelligence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 March 2017, 20:35 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has secretly launched a plan to erase the records of military intelligence officers and operatives of the Military Intelligence who have been named with command responsibility by the affected victims and their families, particularly the kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of occupying Sri Lankan military after MI operatives carried out arrests, detentions and abductions during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. In an effort to get rid of the details of those named by the victims, the military intelligence officers and operatives are being transferred to separate divisions or offered early retirement, informed EPDP paramilitary sources told TamilNet on Saturday.
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SL Minister, Councillor behind veiled threats to LRC Director in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 March 2017, 19:27 GMT]
A SL Deputy Minister and a member of the Eastern Provincial Council were issuing veiled threats to Batticaloa District Director of Land Reforms Commission, Mr Wimalraj Nesakumar, who later survived a brutal assassination attempt on 22 February at Ka’luthaava’lai, informed civil sources in Batticaloa told TamilNet on Thursday. Both the SL minister and the EPC councillor were trying to instruct the LRC Deputy Director to desist from objecting illegal land grab in Tha’laavaay, situated in Ea’raavoor-pattu divison, the sources further said.
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Keappaa-pulavu struggle continues, only one tenth of lands released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 March 2017, 23:40 GMT]
Lands belonging 54 families were released in Pulak-kudiyiruppu of Keappaa-pulavu GS area after 29 days of continuous struggle on Wednesday. The families of Pulak-kudiyiruppu entered their lands in a mood of victory. However, the happiness lasted only a few minutes till they arrived premises of their lands to witness their houses and trees, which were standing there in full shape as late as on 30 January this year, had been completely erased to the grounds by the occupying Sinhala military that had a different plan of permanently seizing their lands. Many of the families were caught in pain and trauma caused by the memories of the loss of their loved ones in the genocidal onslaught. In the meantime, more than 128 families of Keappaa-pulavu and the remaining 30 of 84 families from Pulak-kudiyiruppu vowed to continue to the struggle until their lands completely released.
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SL military threat against civil organisations reaches serious level in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2017, 22:47 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military was directly controlling the civil rights of the Eezham Tamils under the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, the SL military under the joint regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe, has chosen much worse forms of controlling the underlying social fabric of Eezham Tamils in the Eastern Province, complain Tamil activists from Rural Development Society (RDS) organisations and women’s rural organisations in Batticaloa district in the East. SL military intelligence, which has gathered details of RDS activists and the details of their families, has been exerting pressure on the activists to operate as its informants. All the RDS organisations in the 14 divisions of Batticaloa district are facing the same threat and harassment from the SL military.
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Kaaththaankudi Muslims express solidarity with uprooted Keappaa-pulavu Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 February 2017, 22:25 GMT]
Two Muslim organisations, Kaaththa-nakar Arasiyat Ka'lam (Kaaththaan-kudi Forum of Politics) and the Progressive Council for National Integration, mobilised Muslims in Kaththaan-kudi (Kattankudy) outside Jamiullafireen Jummah Mosque after Friday prayers. “Let us begin afresh from our split-ups” and “Unity brings prosperity” were featured as the main slogans by the organisations. In the meantime, the families of enforced disappeared Tamils in Vavuniyaa in the Northern province resumed their struggle on Friday amidst a section of NGO agents were seeking to pacify the grassroots activists.
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UN Human Rights mechanism in Geneva has disappointed families of enforced disappeared

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2017, 21:14 GMT]
Mothers and wives of enforced disappeared in Ki'linochchi district, who are waging a continuous struggle since Monday this week, have blamed the Office of Human Rights High Commissioner in Geneva for working behind the scene to give more ‘time and space’ to the SL State without bringing international justice. “Look at us. I am already 65. Most of the aged mothers, like myslef, are affected by various kinds of illnesses. We take more medicines than food. We would not last for long. 7 years have already vanished. Giving time and space to SL State only means death to ourselves and justice. If we are no more, there would be no one demanding justice. Colombo knows this,” Leelathevi Ananthanadarajah, one of the mothers giving collective leadership to the struggle being waged in front of the Kandaswamy temple in Ki'lilnochchi told TamilNet in a video interview.
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Keappaa-pulavu protesters question silence of foreign diplomats, challenge ‘TNA optics’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2017, 11:38 GMT]
Tamil women-led protesters in Keappaa-pulavu on Saturday questioned the silence on the part of the diplomats from the international community who have been to Keappaa-pulavu on ‘field trips’ in the past. The Head of Keappaa-pulavu Women’s Development Organisation Ms S Chandraleela told TamilNet on Saturday that in addition to releasing their occupied lands, the SL military should be withdrawn from the roads used by their children from their village to school. The people on the struggle are concerned of retaliatory abductions from the SL military, which is engaged in surveillance against the protesting families. In the meantime, SL Air Force remove the paragraph of shoot-at-sight warning from the notice boards it had put inside the lands, a day after the threat was exposed by media with photographic evidence.
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SL military puts up shoot-at-sight warning inside appropriated Keappaa-pulavu lands

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 February 2017, 23:13 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has put up notice boards threatening the protesting families and the people visiting Keappaa-pulavu not to enter the lands that have been seized from the uprooted families. “This land belongs to the Air Force. Unwarranted entry is prohibited. Those entering unwarranted will be targeted by gunfire,” say the warnings that have been put up inside the lands of uprooted people on Friday. In the meantime, SL Air force personnel have been shooting photos using professional DSLR cameras threatening the visitors expressing solidarity with the protesters. Tamil politicians, except those from the ITAK collaborating with the SL regime, have started to stay overnight with the protesting families as military threats have started to escalate. The families have been staying in front of the SL military base with their children for continuously for 18 days.
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Thousands mobilize in Ezhuka Thamizh in Batticaloa, denounce genocidal ‘Sri Lanka’

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2017, 20:50 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils mobilized in Batticaloa on Friday denouncing the unitary State model of genocidal Sri Lanka currently being envisaged in the constitutional proposals in the South. The SL regime in Colombo has discarded the proposals submitted in open and transparent manner by the Tamils in the North-East, the organizers of the event, Tamil People’s Council, said. The entire constitutional process has become a secretive discourse while the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act is used to muffle the freedom of expression of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, the speakers, including Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, said in their speeches. There should be full-scale de-militarization. The 6th Amendment to the SL Constitution and the draconian PTA should be scrapped for a free and fair constitutional process to take place in the North-East.
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Occupying Colombo to expand airbase in Jaffna seizing more lands of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 February 2017, 23:04 GMT]
1,650 acres of additional lands are to be permanently seized from the uprooted Tamils in Valikaam North to expand the runway of Palaali airport, which has been militarized and used by the three forces of the occupying Sinhala military. The Defence Ministry of genocidal Sri Lanka has sketched out a new plan to expand the runway of the Palaali airport. Earlier, New Delhi has been providing financial assistance to the expansion of the runway and was projecting the assistance as a move to upgrade the airport into an international airport. Later, the scope of the project was limited. The airport continues to be under the direct control of the SL military, which is now planning to proceed with further expansion, informed civil sources in Jaffna District Secretariat told TamilNet on Wednesday.
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UN Human Rights Council misled on ground situation: Head of WRDS in Keappa-pulavu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2017, 23:41 GMT]
Amidst poisonous snakes lurking around the protest site in the nights, SL military personnel staging threatening episodes in the dark, the uprooted Eezham Tamil families from Keappaapulavu, including children, have been staging the protest for the sixth day on Sunday in front of the SL Air Force base at Keappaa-pulavu, situated along the lagoon of Nanthik-kadal in Mullaiththeevu. The Head of Women’s Rural Development Society in Keappaa-pulavu Ms S Chandraleela told TamilNet that the people have gone tired of several false promises in the last 8 years and are not prepared to abandon their protest without seeing a solution. In the meantime, Colombo has managed to wage a false propaganda before Geneva sessions, as usual prior to every session in Geneva, that lands were being released back to the people in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.
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Ranil Wickramasinghe schemes next phase of structural genocide of Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 February 2017, 22:23 GMT]
The Coast Conservation Department (CCD), SL Archaeology Department, SL Tourism Board and the Ministry of Defence of the genocidal State of Sri Lanka are being tightly coordinated by certain foreign-relations involved ministers and officials in Colombo to demarcate a large tract of land to the west of Cheenan-kudaa (China Bay), which is to be leased out to a foreign country, informed civil sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Thursday. In the meantime, SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is trying to create competition between India and China to strike a trade agreement involving the occupied capital of the nation of Eezham Tamils. Lands with varieties of Ka’ndal mangroves up to 2 km in distance from the coastline of China Bay are to be leased out in the first phase, the sources say.
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Uprooted Ezham Tamil women confront structural genocide in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 February 2017, 23:22 GMT]
The uprooted Eezham Tamil families from Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu have blamed the SL military of genocidal Sri Lanka for deploying all the mechanisms of the unitary State in Colombo to deprive them their lands. After a series of protests, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was supposed to release 234 acres of lands in January as a temporary measure to contain the struggle of the uprooted people. But, only 142 acres are to be released, the people say. That too, not from the coastal and agricultural side along the Nanthik-kadal. The SL Air Force has stationed itself in the fertile lands. SL Forest Department was trying to add confusion by claiming the lands as coming under its purview. The Forest Department falls under Mahaweli Ministry, which is being run by none other than Mr Maithiripala.
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Colombo proves State recognition for demographic genocide at entrance to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2017, 23:02 GMT]
The Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe has officially donated 50 houses on Monday through ‘National’ Housing Development Authority (NHDA) to the Sinhala colony, that has been created by the occupying Sinhala military and Sinhala-Buddhist extremist ‘Sinhala Ravaya’ at the strategic entrance to Jaffna at Naavat-kuzhi. The controversial move comes amidst strong opposition from provincial councillors of Northern Provincial and the position taken by the latest District Coordinating Committee (DCC) meeting, which was co-chaired by SL Deputy Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran and SL government agent to Jaffna N. Vethanayahan. The UNP has exerted pressure on ITAK, proposing a deal of 200 houses to Tamils in the same area in order to proceed with the NHDA recognition of the military-enforced colony of demographic genocide.
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Resettled fisher families at Palaali North face hunger due to UNDP negligence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 January 2017, 18:33 GMT]
The UN Development Agency was promising to provide sea-access facilities to more than 50 fisher families who were resettled after 27 years in their own coastal fishing village of Antonypuram in Palaali North in Valikaamam North. A few weeks ago, the fishermen families shifted their work from displaced Inparuddi area in Vadamaraadchi North to their own village in Palaali. After the SL military allowed them to access the sea 60 days ago, the fishermen were only able to make it to sea for 5 days, says 34-year-old Sujeevan Antonypillai, a resettled fisherman. The UNDP, after promising to put up the fisheries infrastructure, has delayed it. Housing was provided through Indian Housing Scheme, which was initiated in May 2016. The UNDP is now citing bad weather conditions to commence the infrastructure work.
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SLN should apologise for brutal assault on stranded Jaffna fishermen at Kachchatheevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 January 2017, 10:18 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy stationed at Kachchatheevu islet brutally assaulted three Eezham Tamil fishermen from Neduntheevu, whose fishing boat ran aground on Kachchatheevu islet after losing fuel on 20 January. The exhausted fishermen, who had been searching for their lost fishing net, were detained throughout the night and subjected to brutal assault by the SL Navy. On the following day, the fishermen were sent back into the sea on board their vessel without any fuel. The news of the SL Navy attacking them was exposed to local media after other fishermen saved the wounded fishermen. Now, the SL Navy has started to exert pressure on those who alerted the media and the Tamil politicians, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam, who has been in touch with the assaulted fishermen and their representative, Mr Aruljeevan, since the incident was reported for the first time.
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Sirisena wages demographic genocide against ancient Tamil villages in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 January 2017, 18:03 GMT]
The unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, particularly its president who hails from the North Central Province, is slowly and silently annexing lands of the ancient Tamil village Thamapalakaamam, an agricultural village, which is also a suburb of Trincomalee city in the Eastern Province, with Anuradhapura district. Carving out 75% of the lands coming under Thampalakaamam division and after Sinhalicising the area into two villages with Sinhala colonisers, the current regime of Maithiripala Sirisena, is attempting to administratively annex these villages with the Anuradhapura district, informed Tamil civil sources in Trincomalee said. Thampalakaamam is located about 27 km southwest of the east port town on the Trincomalee-Kandy highway.
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NPC Councillor vows to take next-phase of protests to foreign missions in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2017, 17:10 GMT]
Northern Provincial Councillor Mrs Ananthy Sasitharan has vowed to take the next step of struggle by the relatives of the enforced disappeared to the diplomatic missions of foreign powers that were responsible for urging Tamils to surrender and move towards Vavuniyaa during the final phase of the Tamil genocide in 2009. In the meantime, the kith and kin of enforced disappeared who were on a hunger strike temporarily ended their struggle on the 4th day on Thursday after SL Deputy Defence Secretary has brokered a meeting between the hunger strikers and the SL Prime Minister on 09th February. Two symbolic hunger-strikes were conducted in Jaffna on Thursday in support of the relatives of enforced disappeared in Vavuniyaa during the last phase of Tamil genocide.
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Health of hunger striking elderly women deteriorates, Wigneswaran urges immediate action

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2017, 20:35 GMT]
The health situation of the hunger striking elderly women of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances in SL military controlled Vavuniyaa during and after the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009 has escalated on the third day of their fast-unto death campaign demanding immediate answers from the SL State and its backers on the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Medical sources in Vavuniyaa have urged hospitalisation of four women who were treated by the doctors on Wednesday. But, the hunger strikers have refused to cooperate and continue their struggle. In the meantime, several activists in Jaffna, Trincomalee and other places have called for escalation of hunger strike in other places. Social media activists are also organising a fasting campaign expressing their solidarity.
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